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ECMAScript 6: A Better JavaScript for the Ambient Computing Era
Summary
Allen Wirfs-Brock answers questions on ECMAScript 6: Why do we need it? Why did it take so long? What’s in it? When can you use it? What comes next?
Bio
Allen Wirfs-Brock is a Mozilla Research Fellow and the technical editor of ECMA-262, the international standard that defines JavaScript. He is an expert in dynamic, OOP languages and their implementation but is also an entrepreneur who founded two successful companies. He is also writing in his spare time about the technical and societal implications of the rapidly emerging Ambient Computing Era.
About the conference
The Philadelphia Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise Conference has established itself as the most diverse and interesting conference on the East Coast. Curated by developers, for developers, it brings together the brightest minds in software development.
Community comments
Assembly Language of the Web
by Richard Eng,
Assembly Language of the Web
by Richard Eng,
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Mr. Wirfs-Brock's observation that the Intel architecture won by virtue of its ubiquity makes a good point for JavaScript. Today, all major programming languages (including dynamic ones) run on Intel hardware via its assembly language (even VMs). You rarely need to program at the assembly language level.
Similarly, JavaScript is the "assembly language" of the Web. You can use better languages that transpile to JavaScript. Why would you want to program in assembly language???
JavaScript is a mess of a language. Despite Douglas Crockford's "Good Parts," the language is a virtual minefield of quirks and gotchas. There are much cleaner languages out there, such as Dart, Java, Amber, etc.